The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1887-06-03
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
A Tribute to the Sailors Whose
Achievements Are Forgotten.
Deeds of Naval Heroes Who Sleep Be
meath the Sea-Impressive Word
Painting of Historic Fleets
and Their Commanders

Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage preached a
memorial sermon in the Brooklyn Tab
ernacle on a recent Sabbath, in which he
devoted his attention more particularly
to the naval heroes of the past. He took
for his text:
Behold also the ships-James ill.,, 4.
He said: If this exclamation were ap-
propriate about eighteen hundred and
sixty years ago, when it was written con-
corning the crude fishing smacks that
sailed Lake Galilee, how much more ap-
propriate in an age which has launched
from the dry docks for purposes of
peace the Arizona, of the Guiou Line; the
City of Richmond, of the Inman Line;
the Egypt, of the National Line; the Ger
manic, of the White Star Line; the Cir
cassia, of the Anchor Line; the Etrurla,
of the Cunard Line, and the Great East
ern, with hull $50 feet long-not failure,
for it helped lay the Atlantic
cable, and that was enough glory
for one ships existence-and in
an age which for purposes of
war has launched the screw-sloops like
the Idaho, the Shenandoah, the Ossippe,
and our iron-clads like the Kalamazoo,
those which have already been buried in
the deep, like the Monitor, the Housa-
tonic, the Weehawken and the Tecumseh.
the tempests ever since sounding a vOlley
over their water sepulchers, and the
SCARED veterans of war shipping, like the
Constitution, or the Alliance or the Con-
stellation, that have swung into the naval
yards to spend their last days, their decks
now all silent of the feet that trod them,
their rigging all silent of the hands that
chung to them, their portfolios silent of
the brazen throats that once thundered
out of them. If in the first century, when
war vessels were dependent on the oars
that padded at the side of them for pro-
| pulsion, my text was suggestive; with how
| much more emphasis, and meaning, and
! overwhelming reminiscence we can cry
! out, as we see the Kearsage lay across
! the bows of the Alabama and sink it,
teaching foreign nations they had better
keep their hand off our American light, or
as we see the ram AIbemarle, of the Con-
| federates, running out and in the Roam
! oke, and up aud down the coast, throw
! ing every thing into confusion as no other
| craft ever did, pursued by the Miami, the
! Ceres, the Southfield, the Sass acus, the
Mattabesett, the Whitehead, the Commo-
1 dore Hull, the isiana, the Minnesota
! and other armed vessels, all trying in
vain to catch her, until Captain Cushing,
! twenty-one years of age, and his men
! blew her up, himself and only one other
| escaping; and, as l see the flagship Hart
| ford, and the Richmond, and the MonOn-
| gahela, with other gunboats, sweep past
Mississippi flows forever free to allNOrth-
ern and Southern craft, cry out with a
! patriotic emotion that 1 can not suppress
if 1 would, and would not if 1 could:
''Behold also the shipsp'
At the annual deco ration Of graves,
North and South, among Federals and
/ ConfederateS, full Justice has been done
to the memory of those who fought on the
land in our great contest, but not enough
! has been said Of those who on ships deck
dared and suffered all things. Lord God
of the rivers and the sea, help me in this
! sermonl So, ye Admirals, Commodor es,
/ Commanders, Captains, pilots, gunners,
! bOatswaIns, sail makers, surgeons, stok-
ers. messmates and seamen of all names,
TO use your own parlance, we might as
/ well get under way and stand out toward
sea. Let all land lubbers go ashore. Full
speed nowl Four bells.
Never since the sea fight of Lepanto
where 800 royal galleys, manned by so, 900
warriors, at sunrise, Septem Der g. 1871,
met 250 royal galleys, manned by 10000
men, and in the four hours Of battle 5000
fell on one side, and % 600 on the other;
yea, never since the day when at Actium,
thlrty-one years before Christ, Augustus,
with 900 ships, scattered the 26)
ships of Mark Antony and gained uni
versal dominion as the prize; yea, since
the day when at Salamis the 300 galleys
! of the Persians manned by 100000 men,
were crushed by Greeks with less than a
/ third of that force; yea, never since the
time of Noah, the first ship captain, has
the world seen such a miraculous crea-
I ton a that Of the American navy in 1851.
There were about 2J0 available seam en- in
all the navy stations and receiving ships,
and here and there an old vessel Yet
/ orders were given to blockade g. 500 miles
of seacoast, greater than the whole coast
of Europe, and besides that, the Ohio, Ten
nessee, umberland, Mississippi and
/ other great rivers, covering an extent of
1000 more miles, were to be patrOled. No
wonder the whole civilized world burst
into guffaw of laughter at the seemi ng
imposs bility. But the work was done,
done almost imm sdiateIy, done thorough
~, and done with a speed and
consummate skill that ecllpsed
all the history Of naval architecture.
] What brilliant achievements are sug-
gested by the mere mention of the nam IS
of the Rear Admrals. If all they did
should be written, every one, supp ose
that even the world itself could not con
tain the books that should be written.
But these names have received the honors
due. The most of them wentto their graves
under the cannOnade of all the forts, navy
yards and men-of-war, the flags Of all the
shipping and capitol5 at half-mast.
But l recite to-day the deeds of our nav
al heroes who have not yet received ap-
propriate rec0gn tion.
Behold also the ships.
As we will never know what our ma
tiOnal pros perity is worth until we realize
what it cost, l recall the unrecit ed fact
that the men of the navy ran especial
risks. They had not only the human
weaponry to contend with, but the tides,
the fog, the storm. Not like other ships
could they run into harbor at the ap-
proach of an equinox, or a cyclone, or a hur-
ricane, because the harbors were hostil c.
A miscalculation of tide might leave
them on a bar, and a fog might overthrow
all the plans Of wisest Commodore and
Admiral, and accident might leave them,
not on the land ready for an ambulance,
but at the bottom of the sea, as when the
torpedo blew up the Tecumseh, in Mobile
bay, and nearly all on board perished.
They were at the mercy of the Atlantic
and Pacific oceans, which have no mercy.
Such tempests as wrecked the Spanish
armada might any day swoop upon the
squadron. No hiding behind the earth
works No digging in Of cavalry spurs at
the sound of retreat. Mightier than all the
fortresses on all the coasts, is the ocean
when It bomba fiotuIa. In the GENE
teries for Federal and Confederate dead
are the bodies of most Of those who fell
on the land. But where those are who
went down in the war vessels will not be
known until the sea gives up its dead.
The Jack tars knew thai while loving
arms might carry the men who fell on the
land and bury them with solemn liturgy
and the honors of war, for the bodies Of
those w no dropped from the ratines into
the sea, or went down with all on board
under the stroke OF a gunboat, there re-
NAMED the shark and the whale and the
endless tossing Of the sea which can not
rest How viii you hDd their graves for
this National decoraGoaf Nothing but